Trump vs. Schumer on taxes

Star Parker

I’m for making things better for everyone. And the main focus of my work is improving the lives of low-income Americans.

So why do I love the tax reform package that President Trump has proposed?

Shouldn’t my sympathies be with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who says these tax cuts “makes life easier for the wealthy and special interests” and “harder for middle class and lower income Americans”?

The answer is, I have been watching liberals for 25 years claim they are “for the poor” and then enact policies that hurt them.

Liberals think that you help Peter by taking from Paul. I think you help both Peter and Paul by creating the best possible conditions for opportunity for both of them.

How do you create the best possible conditions for opportunity for both Peter and Paul? Freedom.

Tons of data and studies show that countries that have the most economic freedom — good laws that protects life and property, low taxes, nonintrusive regulation, limited government — are the most prosperous. And even the poorest in these countries are far better off than the poorest in countries without economic freedom.

You don’t need a Ph.D. in economics to understand that a country that punishes success is going to be less wealthy than a country that rewards it.

The last eight years under liberal control have been a disaster economically. From 1950 until 2000, on average the U.S. economy grew at 3.5 percent per year. Since 2008, it has grown barely 2 percent per year.

What does this mean? Hoover Institution economist John Cochrane points out that average American income, adjusted for inflation, grew from $16,000 in 1952 to $50,000 in 2008. If the economy over this period grew at 2 percent instead of 3.5 percent, average income in 2008 would have been $23,000 instead of $50,000.

Why the great economic slowdown after 2008? No, not because there was a recession when President Obama took over. Generally, economic recoveries have faster than usual growth, not slower. The great slowdown was because of the explosion of government, thanks to liberals. Explosion of spending, explosion of debt, explosion of regulations, explosion of taxation.

Economies, like people, thrive when they can breath, not when they are being strangled.

Why are liberals so uncomfortable with freedom? Why do they think the world needs them to control everybody’s lives?

Maybe they’re just really confused? Maybe they love the power they get? Maybe, because most liberals don’t accept traditional religious values, they think that they are the Creator of the Universe?

According to the Tax Foundation, the United States has the third-highest corporate tax rate out of 173 nations. Trump wants to cut the U.S. corporate tax from 35 percent to 15 percent. The result is simple. More business will come back to the U.S. and fewer will go abroad. More jobs here. Isn’t that the idea?

I’d like to see a business tax rate of zero in low-income urban areas.

In 2013, Obama did what liberals claim needs to be done. Tax the rich. Taxes were raised on the highest-income earners and another new tax was levied on investment income of the highest income earners. This was supposed to bring in $650 billion over 10 years in tax revenue. Instead, because of slower economic growth, estimates are, according to former Senator Phil Gramm, that revenues will be five times lower than this.

Does Schumer really want to help the poor do better under freedom? I invite him to stop sending federal money to Planned Parenthood abortion clinics and to start talking about the importance of family and traditional values that the welfare state has wiped out in inner cities.

The Trump plan to cut business and personal taxes is great for Americans of all backgrounds.

——–

Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education.